N.Y. ski resorts fear climate change impact

Rick Karlin

Published 3:28 pm, Saturday, December 8, 2012

It's two weeks before the start of winter and temperatures have been above normal, leaving barely a trace of natural snow on the ground anywhere in New York state.

While many people like the balmy weather, it's a distressingly familiar scenario for skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers and others who revel in the snow.

Ski areas are already open, thanks to snow-making machines.

But the lack of natural snow is so familiar that a group of winter sports enthusiasts has joined forces with a major environmental group and is pushing the ski industry to play a greater role in fighting global warming.

"This industry needs to take its head out of the snow before it melts," said Antonia Herzog, of the National Resources Defense Council's clean air program.

The NRDC, researchers from the University of New Hampshire and a group known as Protect Our Winters released a study Thursday outlining the financial toll that global warming poses to the skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling industries.

Snow-based recreation contributes an estimated $67 billion to the national economy and supports over 600,000 jobs, representatives from each organization said during a phone conference. It adds an estimated $846 million to New York's economy.

Last year, they said, was the fourth-warmest since 1896 with the third-lowest snowfall total since satellite surveillance of snowpack began in 1966. The warmth and lack of snow translated into economic hardship.

"Jobs were being lost, businesses were closing and resorts were trimming staff,'' said Chris Steinkamp, POW's executive director.

In addition to conducting its survey, the group has traveled to Washington, D.C., making the case to Congress that "snow is currency," said University of New Hampshire researcher Elizabeth Burakowski.

"We felt that many congressmen needed to hear these stories firsthand," added Steinkamp.

The survey targeted 38 states with winter sports.

But New York, along with the northern New England states, the Rockies and California are major snow sports destinations.

With over four dozen sites, New York has the most ski areas of any state because many are small mom-and-pop operations dwarfed by the mega-resorts in the West.

If weather trends and predictions hold, average temperatures will rise between 4 and 10 degrees by the end of this century, said Burakowski. That means Eastern ski seasons will be half as long as they are now.

Much of the initial push for an organized effort started with the most avid skiers and boarders, who are highly attuned to changes in the weather, said Steinkamp.

POW, which is also an acronym for "powder snow" in ski argot, is modeled on the Surfrider Foundation, and the two organizations cooperate on several fronts.

The Surfrider Foundation started in the 1980s in Southern California after surfers grew concerned about pollution and other threats to their beaches and the ocean. It has grown into a full-scale environmental organization focusing on the world's oceans and beaches.

POW was created in 2007 by Jeremy Jones, a well-known snowboarder who found that lack of snow was cutting down on the number of spots where he could ride.

The organization has several corporate sponsors, such as outdoor apparel makers The North Face and Patagonia, but the only ski resort listed on its website is Aspen Ski Co. in Colorado.

Ski area operators, especially in the East, know that winters are unpredictable.

"If you are in the ski industry and want to stay in the ski industry you may believe in it or not," Scott Brandi, president of Ski Areas of New York, said of global warming. "But you know you cannot run a ski area based on natural snow anymore," he said.

Most of New York's sizable ski centers, as well as those in Vermont, are now open thanks to their artificial snow-making capabilities.

But Mother Nature is taking her time with natural snow.

Joe Villani, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, said forecasts for the next two weeks call for warmer temperatures, with rain possible over the weekend, although there is a chance for some snow next week.